Please use this form to submit your study for inclusion into our database. It will be checked by a member of the Innovation Growth Lab team, who may be in contact to ask for more information. Your email address * Your name * Title * The name of the study Short summary A university-based entrepreneurship training in Tunisia which appeared to have impact on participants behaviours and skills but no significant impact on increasing their self-employment. A brief description of the project's goals and its current state Abstract <p>In economies characterized by low labor demand and high rates of youth unemployment, entrepreneurship training has the potential to enable youth to gain skills and create their own jobs. This paper presents experimental evidence on a new entrepreneurship track that provides business training and personalized coaching to university students in Tunisia. Undergraduates in the final year of licence appliquée were given the opportunity to graduate with a business plan instead of following the standard curriculum. This paper relies on randomized assignment of the entrepreneurship track to identify impacts on labor market outcomes one year after graduation. The analysis finds that the entrepreneurship track was effective in increasing self-employment among applicants, but that the effects are small in absolute terms. In addition, the employment rate among participants remains unchanged, pointing to a partial substitution from wage employment to self-employment. The evidence shows that the program fostered business skills, expanded networks, and affected a range of behavioral skills. Participation in the entrepreneurship track also heightened graduates’ optimism toward the future shortly after the Tunisian revolution.</p> The full abstract of the study, if available Links http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/2012/12/03/000158349_20121203172559/Rendered/PDF/wps6285.pdf Links to any published papers and related discussions Authors * Affiliations Academic and other institutes that the authors of the study are members of Delivery partner Organisations involved in delivering the trial, if appropriate Year Year Year199419951996199719981999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026 Month MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Day Day12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 Journal Journal publishing the study, if available Publication stage * Working Paper Published Ongoing Research Forthcoming Discussion Paper Research theme * Entrepreneurship Innovation Business Growth Country Country or countries where this study took place. Topics What sort of topics does the study cover? Sample attributes Hypotheses / research question Does the training and coaching delivered as part of entrepreneurship track increase self-employment among graduates? Does the entrepreneurship track increase overall employment among beneficiaries? Sample Trial population and sample selection In 2009/10 there were 18,682 students enrolled in the third year of licence appliquée in Tunisian universities. A communications campaign took place on campuses to inform students of the new initiative. They were invited to fill in an application form for the entrepreneurship track in November or December 2009. 1,702 students (9.1% of all eligible students) applied to participate in the newly established entrepreneurship track. Of those, 1,310 students applied individually and 392 applied in pairs. In total, 1,506 projects were registered. 4 universities accounted for 66% of participants. The programme was oversubscribed - half of applicants were randomly assigned to treatment and other half commenced incumbent curriculum tracks. Number of treatment groups Size of treatment groups 757 projects, of which 658 were individual projects and 99 projects were in pairs. Size of control group Unit of analysis Clustered? Yes No Cluster details Trial attributes Treatment description An entrepreneurship track introduced into curriculum in the academic year of 2009/2010 as an alternative track for final year students. It provides business training and support to write a business plan, and can be an alternative to submitting a thesis. The entrepreneurship track provided students with entrepreneurship courses organised by the public employment office; external private sector coaches, mainly entrepreneurs or professionals in an industry relevant to the student’s business idea; and supervision from university professors in development and finalisation of the business plan. Participants were also given the option to submit their business plan to a competition, with a chance to win seed capital to fund their project. Rounds of data collection Baseline data collection and method An application form and follow-up phone interview. Data collection method and data collected Evaluation Outcome variables <p>Intermediary outcomes related to business skills, networks, behavioral skills, and access to credit with the objective of teasing out the channels through which the entrepreneurship track affected employment outcomes.</p> Results <p>Impact on self-employment: The intervention increased self-employment among programme participants approximately one year after graduation. Impact on employment status: No evidence that the programme significantly affected overall employment. Impact on employment characteristics: The entrepreneurship track did not promote higher quality jobs among participants. There was no significant impact on employment in the formal sector, firm size, hours of work, or earnings. Business skills: Beneficiaries report having more practical experience in realising projects. They also report to have better knowledge about topics taught in the programme. Networks: The programme was effective in increasing the business and employment networks of participants. Preference and behavioural skills: No evidence that the program had an impact on self-reported risk and time preference parameters. Significant decrease in agreeableness, significant increase in extraversion, decrease in conscientiousness and emotional stability, decrease in impulsiveness. Attitude towards the future: Beneficiaries reported being much more optimistic about the future Access to credit: Treatment group was more likely to be confident to be able to obtain credit and to have actually applied for credit. However they were not more likely to know how to apply for credit and were also no more likely to have obtained credit.</p> Intervention costs Not available. Cost benefit ratio Reference Premand, P., Brodmann, S., Almeida, R., Grun, R., & Barouni, M., 2012. 'Entrepreneurship Training and Self-Employment Among University Graduates: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Tunisia'. Policy Research Working Paper 6285, The World Bank. Citation for use in academic references
